rowan
Americannoun
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rowans
plural
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the European mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia, having pinnate leaves and clusters of bright red berries.
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either of two American mountain ashes, Sorbus americana or S. sambucifolia.
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the berry of any of these trees.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rowan
1795–1805; < Old Norse *raun- in reynir, Norwegian raun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The moose mostly ate birch, rowan and willow trees.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2023
Many parts of the UK have seen an abundance of seeds and nuts such as acorns, beech masts, rowan berries and elderberries including the east of England, North and Northern Ireland.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2022
Flavored with Scottish rowan berry among other botanicals.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 27, 2021
The main species of trees involved are alder, willow, rowan, birch, aspen and Scots pine.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2020
“Just like the children’s song: Let me tell you what to do. Dig a pit that’s ten by two. Ash and elm and rowan too— “Yes indeed,” the bundled man said dryly.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Among the pines grew rowans hung with scarlet berries, and bilberry bushes whose leaves would be fair game for white moth caterpillars in spring.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 25, 2020
Just as he reached the little lawn among the rowans he overtook him, toiling uphill, panting and calling, Frodo!
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Gurgi, sniffing hungrily, ran ahead and disappeared into a stand of rowans.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
Nevertheless, he could not quite overcome his surprise when, after a short while, they indeed came upon a swift running brook winding its way through a stand of rowans.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
At noon I came down a bit water that tumbled in a linn, where rowans grew among the stones and the eddies were amber with the seeping from the peat.
From The Coast of Adventure by Harold Bindloss
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
